Under a Blood Red Moon
by diabelle
Summary: Summary


_Under a Blood Red Moon_

"_Public announcement, warning to all citizens of Ravens Havoc, please heed this message. It is advised to stay indoors tonight. Bolt your doors and windows and detain your pets inside..."_ the message was uttered by the magically amplified voice of an unidentifiable ministry official.

Diane, who had heard the overly loud, droning announcement four times already that day mumbled a silencing charm to make the room she was in soundproof, outside the voice boomed on. She had heard it more than enough and wanted to continue with her work. She much preferred to work in the peace and tranquillity of her own home. She lived a small distance away from her neighbours, in the middle of a woodland area, quite secluded and sheltered from outside observers.

Diane was an elderly witch who prided herself in her work. At night, she would take to her back garden and observe the night skies. She would make copious notes on the positions of stars and planets and calculate why stars fell across the sky at a particular moment in time. During the daytime, she used her notes and calculations to give a rough outline of the future to come. Of course, she did not predict specific events, but general lines of progress or regress if that was the case. Walking in the woods that surrounded her house was her favourite daytime pastime, if she could free up some time from her calculations and notations.

She had trained to be an astronomer all those decades ago, after she found out that she did not have the aptitude for charms, potions or transfiguration, the areas her parents had hoped she would shine in but rather excelled in correctly determining what the night skies could tell her. She chosen to take an apprenticeship under several astronomers of great renown and after the apprenticeship she had gone her own way, to Ravens Havoc.

Diane knew why the Ministry was ordering people to stay indoors. Tonight the moon would be full and due to an astronomical anomaly, it would be as red as blood. It was very rare for both magical events to fall on the same night but that made it all the more important for people to stay inside.

This night in particular would be a haven for werewolves, vampires and other night-dwellers. Tomorrow the Ministry would have to start looking for the Muggles that had been unfortunate enough to fall prey to the things that go 'bump' in the night. New werewolves would have to be informed and detained if they were Muggles, bodies would have to be removed and minds would have to be modified. Many a Muggle mother would not see her child return from that midnight camping trip in the woods.

Blood spilled under a blood red moon was special, it was more powerful and vampires or practitioners of the forbidden art of blood magic didn't require as vast amounts to satisfy their needs, unlike on other nights. Tonight, under the blood red full moon, that would be even more so. Rituals that would usually call for twelve virgin sacrifices could suffice with the demise of only one unfortunate victim with the same if not better results at that. Diane expected that Blood Magic alone would call for a few innocent victims tonight as well. After all, You-Know-Who had risen again, and the years leading up to his first reign of terror had also been littered with bodies and human sacrifices.

Nature however has ways to maintain the fragile balance between life and death, as Diane knew, a blood red moon also blessed children born and conceived under it. Children, normal Muggle children, blessed to be born and conceived on nights like these, blessed with magical powers. Children come to fill the void left by victims of dark Wizards of all sorts to bring back balance to our world. Muggle-born Wizards to strengthen our kind and replace those lost to the dark and the evils that lurk within. For children of magical ancestry born on those nights, it was a Wizard custom to call in a Seer or an Astronomer to foretell its future.

Diane remembered being fire-called to four infants on nights like these...

Remus, the last child she had been called to, the little baby had still been covered in blood, when Diane had Apparated in. She recalled the particular alignment of the stars that night exceptionally well, because the Dog Star, Sirius had partaken in the red glow coming from the moon, an omen that did not bode well for the small boy. It foretold a bloody and lonely future with little joy and even less true happiness.

Agatha, the first child she had been summoned to, now almost one hundred and seventy years ago. Unfortunately, the girl had not made it through her first year; she would have been a shining light in the magical community. She was born under the blood red moon, which was tempered by the guiding powers of Venus.

Cornelius, the third one she had laid eyes on. He had cried his lungs out for hours, wailing for attention from his parents. He was already fulfilling his future. His stars proclaimed that misdirected pride would rule his life. The blood red moon, the red planet Mars and the ice planet Pluto were all overly present in the night sky. He would be an egocentric from first to last, a boy that would yearn to be as admired as the sun and moon above, without ever really earning the praise he got.

Diane remembered the second child she visited the best, Albus. Jupiter and the star-sign Orion, the archer were his birth stars and had foretold that the boy would be a significant power for good, with an unrelenting wish to make the world a better place. He would rally a lot of people to his side and oppose any and all evil.

How right she had been, Albus Dumbledore was a beacon of hope and light in these grim days. The forces of corruption surrounded the last shining bastion, of the goodness that the magical world could be, he and his followers, by neglect and by the evil workings of Voldemort. Remus Lupin had bitten by a werewolf at a very tender age. It was a miracle that the boy had survived at all. He had as a consequence been alone for most of his life. Moreover, Cornelius Fudge was trying to fight windmills to gain honour, just like Don Quixote. He was an uncaring jerk to no end. Pulling the Ministry of Magic down with him, instead of acknowledging and fighting the real foe.

Diana knew of a few other Moon-lings, as she called them, that had been born during her lifetime but because she hadn't done their star charts, she had no way of knowing what kind of influence they would have on the future of the Wizarding world. No, Tom Riddle's, Severus Snape's, Harry Potter's and Neville Longbottom's destinies had left her standing in the dark without the slightest clue.

Just before the night fell, Diana placed her star charts and notes in her carrying case and placed it next to the front door and sat down in the sofa facing the fireplace where a nice fire was burning, even in the middle of summer. She wanted to be prepared, she might be called upon again tonight, to predict yet another Moon-ling's future, under a blood red full moon.

La Diable belle


End file.
